KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An international human rights commission and United Nation experts have appealed to the U.S. government to stay the January execution of Lisa Montgomery, according to a news release.
Citing Montgomery's mental illness and history of sexual abuse, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has determined that Montgomery is in a situation of serious and urgent risk of irreparable harm to her rights. It called upon the federal government to refrain from carrying out her execution.
The commission, which joins a chorus of other groups calling for Montgomery not to be executed, also stated that the conditions of Montgomery's detention were "not adequate for a woman survivor of sexual violence, especially considering the very serious information of sexual abuse" during her life.
The commission called upon the federal government to provide humane detention conditions that are compatible with international standards that take into consideration her personal conditions.
The ruling came in response to a petition filed by Cornell Law School's International Human Rights Clinic.
Last month, the ACLU sued U.S. Attorney General William Barr and others claiming the death row conditions at a Forth Worth prison are re-torturing Montgomery. The U.S. government has denied that the conditions violate her rights and said they were put in place to prevent Montgomery from trying to die by suicide.
The 52-year-old Montgomery was convicted in 2007 of strangling 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in northwest Missouri, cutting her unborn baby from her womb and kidnapping the baby. The child was later found safe.
Montgomery was originally scheduled to be executed Dec. 8, but a federal judge in Washington delayed the execution because her lawyers tested positive for the coronavirus after visiting her in prison. The delay was to allow her attorneys to recover from the virus and file a clemency petition on her behalf.
The U.S. Department of Justice then rescheduled her execution for Jan. 12. Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, would be the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years.
Meanwhile, a coalition of United Nations human rights experts issued a joint appeal calling for clemency for Montgomery, saying she received inadequate legal assistance and her previous sexual abuse and mental health were not adequately considered during the trial.
"Ms. Montgomery was the victim of an extreme level of physical and sexual abuse throughout her life, against which the State never provided protection and for which it failed to offer remedies," the experts said in a press release.
"She suffered from several mental health conditions which the State failed to care for. When it came to the capital proceedings, the State betrayed her yet again, neglecting to consider these essential and determining facts as mitigating circumstances."
The statement was signed by United Nation experts on violence against women; extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the rights of persons with disabilities; torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; extreme poverty and human rights; and the working group on discrimination against women and girls.
"International standards are clear — the death penalty is always arbitrary and unlawful when the court ignores or discounts essential facts that may have significantly influenced a capital defendant's motivations, situation and conduct," the experts said. "Such facts include exposure to domestic violence and other abuse. A death sentence carried out in contravention of a Government's international obligations amounts to an arbitrary execution."
